The Adagio Media System should be a big yawn of a product....Hmmm - a mashup between Crestron's 6-zone distributed audio control system and a reciever...why should anyone care? I think it's a big deal and will make lots of folks life easier...

The biggest reason is space, power + heat.  The AMS takes 5 rack units - it's just under 7 1/2" tall.  It's going to take 11 RU to fit a surround sound reciever, a distributed audio processor and some vent space between them.  Having one unit to cool - especially on standby is important.  It generates less than 1/2 the heat the two units racked together.

The lowering from 11U to 5U is so important because it now allows for a single rack system that's quite robust:

• AMS - 5U
• Tivo HD - 3U
• DVD Player - 3U
• Game Console - 3U
• Network Switch, etc - 1U

This will all fit underneath a 36" high counter.

This dramatically reduces the costs of such a system - removing the power, 2nd rack, millwork, etc.

But the AMS let's us get even more aggressive - cabling + integration costs plummet.  Let's inventory the wiring now required:

Speaker Wiring - identical

Antenna/Cable Feeds - identical

Component Wiring - One HDMI + One Control Wire each (the AMS can downmix the digital audio sources.)

This is a reduction of 4 stereo pathways, 2 control paths plus a lot of programming work to keep the reciever in sync with the distributed audio system.  It also allows for use of existing shelving + cabinetry for the 1st time.

Cost? Ambleside is offering the a package that brings a six-zone with surround sound system into homes for 25% less than similar functionality just 4 months ago.